Short Story Reviews
In The Looking-Glass by Anton Chekhov we have the theme of devotion, loneliness, escape, fear, love, dedication, hope, defeat and independence. Taken from his The Complete Short Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Chekhov may be exploring the […]
Read moreIn A Malefactor by Anton Chekhov we have the theme of justice, poverty, responsibility, control and hardship. Taken from his The Complete Short Stories collection the story is narrated in third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Chekhov may be exploring the theme of justice. There is […]
Read moreIn One Thousand Dollars by O. Henry we have the theme of selflessness, love, devotion and change. Taken from his Selected Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Henry may be exploring the theme of selflessness. Though Gillian has […]
Read moreIn A Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry we have the theme of change, love, honesty, redemption, determination and identity. Taken from his Selected Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Henry may be exploring the theme of change. Jimmy […]
Read moreIn The Escape by Katherine Mansfield we have the theme of anger, responsibility, control, selfishness, happiness, freedom, independence and ignorance. Taken from her Bliss and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story the reader realises that Mansfield may be exploring […]
Read moreIn The Baron by Katherine Mansfield we have the theme of class, loneliness, isolation and prestige. Taken from her A German Pension collection the story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed female narrator and from the beginning of the story the reader realises that Mansfield may be exploring the theme of class. […]
Read moreIn Paul’s Case by Willa Cather we have the theme of hostility, respect, freedom, escape, corruption, determination and commitment. Taken from her The Troll Garden collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story the reader realises that Cather may be exploring the theme […]
Read moreIn The Martyr by Katherine Anne Porter we have the theme of love, friendship, art, selfishness and grief. Taken from her Flowering Judas and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story the reader realises that Porter may be exploring the […]
Read moreIn The Village Saint by Bessie Head we have the theme of control, image, secrecy, power, selfishness and materialism. Taken from her The Collector of Treasures collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Head may be exploring the theme of […]
Read moreIn Heaven is not Closed by Bessie Head we have the theme of faith, acceptance, fear, power, alienation, ignorance, love, tradition and contentment. Taken from her The Collector of Treasures collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story the reader realises that Head […]
Read moreIn Flowering Judas by Katherine Anne Porter we have the theme of fear, apathy, power, corruption, guilt and betrayal. Taken from her collection of the same name the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the the story the reader realises that Porter may be exploring the theme […]
Read moreIn Respectability by Sherwood Anderson we have the theme of resentment, letting go, fidelity, trust, respectability, isolation, loneliness and forgiveness. Taken from his Winesburg, Ohio collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story the reader realises how symbolically important the narrator’s physical description […]
Read moreIn The Pheasant by Raymond Carver we have the theme of paralysis, connection, struggle, conflict, identity, change and control. Taken from his Fires collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Carver may be exploring the theme of paralysis. There is […]
Read moreIn The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe we have the theme of guilt, paralysis, madness, paranoia and identity. Set in the 1840s the story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Poe may be exploring the theme of guilt. The narrator after […]
Read moreIn Snapshots of a Wedding by Bessie Head we have the theme of marriage, arrogance, responsibility, tradition, status, ego and love. Taken from her The Collector of Treasures collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Head may be exploring the […]
Read moreIn The Man Who Loved His Kind by Virginia Woolf we have the theme of ego, insecurity, resentment, recognition, loneliness and change. Taken from her The Complete Shorter Fiction collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Woolf may be exploring […]
Read moreIn Brothers by Sherwood Anderson we have the theme of connection, loneliness, escape, paralysis and change. Taken from his The Triumph of the Egg and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Anderson may be exploring the theme […]
Read moreIn War by Sherwood Anderson we have the theme of conflict, change, determination, appearance, connection and control. Taken from his The Triumph of the Egg and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Anderson may be exploring the […]
Read moreIn Akueke by Chinua Achebe we have the theme of control, independence, freedom, defiance, fear and tradition. Taken from his Girls at War and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Achebe may be exploring the theme of […]
Read moreIn The Guilty Party by O. Henry we have the theme of responsibility, selfishness, betrayal, sacrifice, love and redemption. Set in the late nineteenth century the story is narrated in the third person though Henry does briefly shift to the first person (Lizzie) near the end of the story. It may also be important that […]
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